Review: Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

From Goodreads - Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a KitchenAid mixer, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O.

Adding insult to O-less, since her move, she has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Each moan, spank, and–was that a meow?–punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has, yep, you guessed it, no O.

In her third novel, Alice Clayton returns to dish her trademark mix of silly and steamy. Banter, barbs, and strutting pussycats, plus the sexiest apple pie ever made, are dunked in a hot tub and set against the gorgeous San Francisco skyline in this hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight.

———-

Wallbanger is the newest contemporary romance book from Alice Clayton. This in an author who mixes humor and wit with extremely well developed characters and charming stories. And Wallbanger is no exception.

This is the story of Caroline, an interior designer and Simon, a photographer. Caroline moves into her bosses no-longer-needed apartment not knowing that the neighbor has…well let’s just say that he has a very busy “extra-curricular” schedule. Their bedrooms are back to back so Caroline is well aware of what goes on in Simon’s room late at night while she is trying to sleep. Not helping is the fact that she has been unable to have an orgasm in ages. She feels that this is being rubbed in her face as she ‘witnesses’ woman after woman achieving what she hasn’t been able to. And not for the lack of trying.

I’m going to cut in here for one second to say that at first, I didn’t feel the ‘lack of O’ was really necessary to the plot. Was is funny? At times. But not really needed. At the end, it does add an unexpected twist and a surprising tender moment (or two…or three) so I understood it there but in the rest of the story, I didn’t feel it was needed.

Now back to Caroline. I really liked her. She was so well written, but what else would I expect from an Alice Clayton heroine? She was a well-rounded character. She was smart and sassy. I adored her scenes with Simon…but I’ll get to that in a sex. Er…I mean sec.

Simon Simon Simon. Holy hell was he Yummy. (Notice the capital ‘Y’) At first, you assume that he is pretty much a man-whore. He’s with a different woman almost every night after all. But then you find out it’s only three women (“only” *snort*) and they are all aware of each other and all have a mutual understanding that Simon simply doesn’t want to be in a relationship and prefers to just be in the company of women. There just happens to be three of them. And he cares for each of them. That is the part that makes all of this okay: he cares for them and you can tell he truly does. Love? Nope. But there is a deep friendship there and that made me like him even more. Also, he is very clever and I loved his sense of humor.

The text messages were amazing. There are some scenes where it’s just Simon and Caroline texting each other then texting their friends and so on. So well done. Each one of those scenes made me smile and giggle. Another part of the story that made me giggle was Caroline’s cat. He was good for many giggles too.

The very last paragraph was not written from Caroline’s point of view. Heck, it wasn’t even written from Simon’s. It was written from another character’s pov and I found it felt a bit odd. I know I’m a minority here and that most find the final chapter to be hilarious and clever but for me…I would have liked to hear from Caroline what this other character says.

As much as I loved Caroline and Simon, my absolute part of this book was Caroline and Simon together. Yes, I really am making perfect sense here…just hear me out. Often, I find lately at least, that many contemporary stories focus on the story and the conflict. Not enough of them focus on the ‘dance’. You know what I mean: the meet-cute, the initial interactions, falling in love, watching as the couple realize they are in love… *sigh* Wallbanger is all about the dance. There really isn’t a huge conflict in this story so all we have to focus on is Simon and Caroline and how they go from pissed-off neighbors to uneasy friends to good friends to lovers. I was really happy to see so much of them together because really, they are just amazing.

Overall, I really liked Wallbanger. Alice did not disappoint with this book; her humor and charm still evident without overpowering the story. Her characters were the highlight by far and I am glad to have ‘met’ them. Fans of the genre should really check this one out. You will not be disappointed.

4 stars

Giggle worthy quote –

The Giggler had said I was lovely.She basically told me Simon had told her I was lovely.Simon thought I was lovely.Was the Giggler out of the harem?Was there even a harem left?What did this mean?Would I only think in questions now?And if so, who is Eric Cartman’s father?

Thanks for the great review! I just finished this book and I loved it. Like you, I really enjoyed the dance and the “wooing”. Cuz as we find out, Simon gives great “woo” The sexual tension had me climbing the walls, but it fit the story soooo well and made what they had so much sweeter and romantic and hawt!!!!!! But I have to admit, that last couple of chapters had me in stitches… I was laughing and ooohing all at the same time. And the scenes w/ Clive were hysterical! This is definitely going on my top 2012 list!

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I'm Julie and this blog is all about Romance and Urban Fantasy Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Guest Posts, Slices of Life and Silly Stuff Too!

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Rating System

I loved, loved, loved this book! I will definitely read it again and recommend it to anyone who will listen!
5 stars with extra lovin'! Not only am I going to re-read this book and recommended it often, but I will most likely cuddle with it a little too!
I loved this book. I will most likely pick it up again someday.
I truly enjoyed this book while I was reading it, but I don't see myself reading it again.
I was disappointed with this book. It was only okay and I skimmed through a few parts.
I really want to find the person who suggested this book and ask them why they thought reading it would be a valuable way to spend my ME time!